Intuit Case Study at the Wisconsin School of Business when I was an undergraduate.

1. QuickBooks
Self-Employed RS
Drive like nobody’s watching

2. Outline storytime
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
beyond

3. The Rideshare
Driver’s Tale

4. The Market
● Revenue for world Ride Sharing segment=US $59,678m in 2018
● ⅔ of Uber drivers drive to collect additional income
● The number of new drivers doubles every six months

5. stage 1
“CUSTOMER”

6. Understanding our customer
and their pain points
● on the ground
● data collection
● external research

7. Daniel
Jerry
“...I enter mileage by hand instead of dealing with
the app auto-tracking”
“Filing quarterly is just more manageable than
doing it all at once”
Randall
And more!
On the Ground
● Interviewing rideshare drivers
in-person
● Inquiring about their biggest
difficulties regarding balancing
expenses
● Introducing our potential
solution and measuring their
engagement
○ Ex. paper prototyping

8. Paper
Prototypes
“...I enter mileage by hand instead of dealing with
the app auto-tracking”
“Filing quarterly is just more manageable than
doing it all at once”
On the Ground
● Interviewing rideshare drivers
in-person
● Inquiring about their biggest
difficulties regarding balancing
expenses
● Introducing our potential
solution and measuring their
engagement
○ Ex. paper prototyping

9. 62.5%
Of survey takers
elected to “download”
our proposed our Uber
sync feature
Responses were extremely varied when it came to
knowledge of expenses - indicating a potential
opportunity to educate drivers
Data Collection
● Joining “Uber/Lyft Drivers of
Madison” facebook group
● Sending survey to members to
gain a better understanding of
the user’s needs
● Testing customer interest in
our proposed feature by
providing a fake “download
link”

10. Responses were extremely varied when it came to
knowledge of expenses - indicating a potential
opportunity to educate drivers
Data Collection
● Joining “Uber/Lyft Drivers of
Madison” facebook group
● Sending survey to members to
gain a better understanding of
the user’s needs
● Testing customer interest in
our proposed feature by
providing a fake “download
link”

11. With mileage being one of the most important
expenses for rideshare drivers - they were
understandably picky about how they wanted to
track it
Users often deferred to third party apps for insights
as they were better tailored to fit the needs of a
rideshare driver
External Research
● Investigating online forums
and reviews of the QB mobile
app
● Looking into the reasons why
customers were using
workarounds or choosing to go
with competitors

12. With mileage being one of the most important
expenses for rideshare drivers - they were
understandably picky about how they wanted to
track it
Users often deferred to third party apps for insights
as they were better tailored to fit the needs of a
rideshare driver
External Research
● Investigating online forums
and reviews of the QB mobile
app
● Looking into the reasons why
customers were using
workarounds or choosing to go
with competitors

13. Is this representative of all
rideshare drivers?
Of course not.
Madison represents an absurdly small percentage of rideshare
drivers overall.
However, the insights we gained can be scaled up to match those
of drivers in different markets with different circumstances.

14. Affinity
Diagram

15. General Problem
Buckets
Corresponding
Solutions
Customer Pain
Points
Mileage
Tracking
Annual Tax
“Sticker-Shock”
Lack of
Specialization
for Rideshare
3rd party
tracking
compatibility
SyncUp
PBank
RS Insights
● QB auto-tracker does not
effectively distinguish
between trips
● Entering mileage data by
hand is time-consuming
● Contracted drivers are forced
to do taxes for long periods of
time all at once
● Extended use of the QB app is
a drain on battery life
● Without experience, income
from rideshare driving can be
unpredictable
● Rideshare expenses differ from
traditional business expenses,
current QB setup makes it
difficult to distinguish
● Must rely on 3rd party apps to
optimize rideshare income

16. stage 2
“PRODUCT”

17. An extension of the QuickBooks
Self-Employed app with three core
additions
SyncUp: changing the way drivers track their mileage
PBank: simplifying the tax management like never before
RS Insights: empowering drivers to optimize their time

18. Why not another app?
● Controlled: Internally located means better management of
quality
● Customer-centric: Uber and Lyft drivers often balance other
car-related gig jobs (Go Puff, Uber Eats, etc)
● Convenient: One centralized location for managing all things
‘rideshare’ in the Quickbooks App

19. SyncUp
● Tracks deductions versus
mileage
● Allows option for scanning
receipt or manually
entering information
● Driving mileage comes from
Lyft/Uber API
Page 1 Page 2
LOW-Fi

20. ● Acts as place to track/store
receipts
○ Eliminates need for 3rd
party app
● Customers did not know if
mileage or expenses allow
for higher deduction
HIGH-Fi
SyncUp

21. ● Calculates estimated taxes
per paycheck
● Users can choose % of
estimated taxes to upload
● Users can invest or store tax
money set aside
Iteration 2 (below)
Iteration 1 (above)
LOW-Fi
PBank

22. ● Drivers can keep control of
their taxes rather than be
surprised
○ Currently handling it
only four times a year
● No need for 3rd party apps
to track taxes
● As long as deductions are
uploaded, users can have
more accurate estimates
HIGH-Fi
PBank

23. RS Insights
● Machine learning insights
that track trends
● Uses a person’s paycheck
from the previous week
○ Uber vs Lyft
○ Extras in car (ex. Candy,
water bottles) versus
tips
○ Driving areas
LOW-Fi

24. RS Insights
● Customers currently rely on
their memory and best
judgement, as well as
Facebook groups in which
we viewed posts
● Gives concrete numbers for
whichever factors drivers
elect to track
HIGH-Fi

25. Deliver complete
confidence to the
customer in their
data
Put more money
back into the
customer’s
pockets
Reduce the amount
of work they need to
do in addition to
running their own
business
RS Insights
SyncUp
PBank

26. stage 3
“ROLLOUT”

27. Leap of Faith Assumptions
● SyncUp: Drivers would rather have their mileage directly
uploaded from the source instead of entering manually
● PBank: Users would prefer the option to deduct taxes from
their weekly earnings similar to a traditional paycheck.
○ Additionally assumes customers would want additional
cash in hand from their returns
● RS Insights: Drivers want to optimize their time and the
money they spend

28. Roll-out Plan
● PBank
○ Calculate estimated taxes over 3 months
○ Compare with those from an accountant
● RS Insights
○ Calculate changes in income and tips versus features, etc. for 6 months
○ Show individual averages first then show local area averages
○ As we collect more data, see what is popular and anticipate what will become popular in
the future
● SyncUp
○ Track Uber/Lyft API data for 3 months and compare against what users think is accurate
○ Implement the sync feature once accurate

29. Post-Launch
● Analysis: Observe usage data of the QuickBooks app in the
month following the release of a feature (DAU, WAU, etc)
○ Compare against previous existing data to determine
effectiveness
● Survey: Send out a questionnaire in the weeks following the
release - potentially incentivised by a discounted subscription

30. Evaluation of Ideas
Effort
Impact
SyncUp
PBank
RS Insights
Based on feasibility, value, and
relevance to the user the
implementation of our ideas should
be prioritized as follows:
1. SyncUp
2. PBank
3. RS Insights
Comparing “Value”

31. Questions?

32. Appendix
Customers log on average $7,393 in mileage deductions per year with QuickBooks Self-Employed...we think
with an integration they can save even more.
Standard Mileage Rates for 2018: 54.5 cents for every mile of business travel driven, up 1 cent from the rate for
2017
Intuit stresses that employees know their customers, watch them, listen to them, visit their homes and
workplaces so they can discover and solve important problems.
More Money+More Time=More Confidence
H&R Block partnership with Uber-If you file your return using H&R Block software or through H&R Block Online
you can put some – or all – of your refund to the purchase of e-gift cards with select retailers, and as bonus
H&R Block will add up to 10% to the amount on the gift card(March 2017)

33. Appendix
By 2017 the total number of Uber drivers worldwide passed 1.5 million
The number of rideshare users is anticipated to be 77.4 million by 2022.
Uber fulfills 40 million rides monthly and has over 77% of US ride-hailing market
Uber driver’s average income – $364 / month (Source: Ernest.com)
The top two reasons for drivers to choose Uber are higher income (91%) and work-day flexibility) (Bureau of
Labor Statistics)